Binance says it will use its own funds to cover every dollar stolen in this week’s security breach, while insisting that customer assets were not affected. Chief executive Richard Teng said the exchange has reserved more than $6.34 billion, including $5 billion already held in the same tokens taken by the attacker.
“Your assets are safe,” Teng said in a video address on Friday, according to reporting by Decrypt and a transcript he posted on social media. He said Binance was buying the remaining amount through market and over-the-counter transactions.
The commitment is intended to reassure customers as the exchange works to restore withdrawals and complete a review of the incident. Binance hopes to resume withdrawals by Sunday and publish a full proof-of-reserves report by Monday, with an initial update expected earlier.
Binance says customer funds were not involved
Teng said the breach affected a Binance hot wallet used by the company, rather than funds belonging to customers. Hot wallets are connected to the internet and are generally used to process transactions, while cold wallets are kept offline for longer-term storage.
According to Teng, most customer assets are held in cold wallets and transferred to a hot wallet only when a user requests a withdrawal. He said Binance does not use customer funds and that users’ assets therefore were not affected by the incident.
The exchange had previously said losses would be covered by its SAFU emergency fund and company funds. Teng said Binance’s ability to absorb the loss also reflects a policy of keeping a large share of its operating earnings in cryptocurrency.
The $6.34 billion reserve includes USDC, USDT, Bitcoin, Ethereum and BNB. Teng said approximately $5 billion was already available in the exact tokens stolen, while Binance was acquiring the balance.
What Binance said about the attack
Teng said the incident was more complex than a single compromised device. Binance initially connected the breach to a compromised laptop, but later identified additional points of entry. The attacker also used a self-destruct mechanism that erased tools and traces, making the investigation more difficult.
The attacker exploited EIP-7702, an Ethereum feature that allows a standard wallet to execute smart-contract code. Teng said the technique gave the attacker on-chain execution approval over a hot wallet without passing through Binance’s usual approval controls.
Binance paused withdrawals while it rebuilds and tests parts of its infrastructure. Its security review covers endpoints, cloud systems, key management and transaction signing. Blockchain analytics firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis have attributed the theft to the North Korean hacking group TraderTraitor, although Teng’s remarks focused on the technical path of the breach and the exchange’s response.
The stolen funds have not stopped moving. Arkham data showed that, between 11:37 a.m. and 12:12 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, a Tron wallet attributed to the attacker transferred around 5.19 million TRX, worth approximately $1.73 million, to 12 addresses.
The incident also prompted a precautionary response from Aave, a decentralized lending protocol. Aave temporarily froze new deposits and borrowing on its V3 and V4 deployments, while withdrawals and repayments continued normally. The protocol later said all markets had been unfrozen, that its contracts were unaffected and that all positions remained overcollateralized.
Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao described the theft as the largest in dollar terms, but said it was not the largest crypto loss measured in Bitcoin. He cited Mt. Gox’s loss of 650,000 BTC. Zhao contrasted that case, and the collapse of FTX, with Binance’s decision to cover this incident using company resources rather than passing the loss to users.
Current market picture
Moneyiar market data at 12:48 p.m. on November 1, 2026, showed BNB at $711.7068665596, up 0.93% over 24 hours but down 3.7% over seven days.
Other assets tracked by Moneyiar were mixed. SAFE was priced at $0.0852681676, down 3.09% in 24 hours and 17.16% over seven days. ASSET was at $0.1927395029, up 6.94% over 24 hours and 3.94% over seven days. DEL stood at $0.458442584, unchanged over 24 hours and up 4.16% over seven days; that figure was recorded by Moneyiar at 10:39 p.m. on October 25, 2026.
The next milestones for Binance are the planned withdrawal restoration, the security findings and the proof-of-reserves disclosure. Those steps are expected to give customers more information about the exchange’s controls and its holdings after the breach.
